


Caged

by eccentric_kittens



Category: Kuroshitsuji | Black Butler
Genre: Canon Trans Character, Cause he's kind of an arsehole and I prefer him to be nicer, Ciel Phantomhive Being an Asshole, Ciel Phantomhive is a Brat, Dubious Consent, F/M, Feet, Female Pronouns for Grell Sutcliff, Foot licking, Grell is literally trans, Kidnapping, Out of Character, Out of Character Sebastian, Probably eventual dubcon, Shrinking, Size Difference, Slow Burn, Try and tell me otherwise, Violence, and not the good kind of brat lol
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2019-04-15
Updated: 2019-07-22
Packaged: 2020-01-14 12:42:13
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 11
Words: 13,689
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/18476467
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/eccentric_kittens/pseuds/eccentric_kittens
Summary: So this is a (kind of ) continuation of a fic I did, but this is pretty different and very much more out of character because I guess Ive Been Depressed AgainTMBasically for reasons unclear (you can read the previous fic if you want) Grell has ended up very small. And I guess my hands decided Sebastian would fall in love with her. Idk.[IF I DON'T GET DEPRESSED LIKE USUAL THIS'LL UPDATE EVERY THURSDAY BOIS]





	1. Chapter 1

“Bassy, dear?”

He looked up, or rather down, to the small figure in the doorway. “...Yes, Grell?”

She scuffed her foot on the floor, awkwardly hugging the handkerchief a little closer around herself. 

“I would have liked to have walked out on that speech, however it’s a rather a long walk from here to my death scythe, let alone my home.”

He cocked his head. “I could...make up a guest bedroom for you. We don’t exactly have a doll’s house.”

“The brat has everything except the one thing that could make my stay here a modicum more comfortable? Isn’t that just typical,” she complained, and sneezed. “And, not to add more to a pile of troubles, but I think my small stature combined with the general lack of heat in this house is making me ill.”

Sebastian got out of bed and knelt, hand outstretched. “May I?”

She curtseyed mockingly, but the rapid movement caused her a brief spell of dizziness. All but staggering onto his hand, she curled up, trying to retain heat. 

“Allow me,” he said smoothly, and with the click of his fingers the fireplace roared to life. “Now, I’ll see what I can do about sleeping arrangements and something for that throat infection you’re developing. For now try to stay warm, and don’t get too close to the fire or you’ll go up in smoke along with my third finest handkerchief.”

He placed her, wrapped up cosily, a few feet away from the flames.

“Oh, wow,” Grell murmured, pretending to faint. “I’m worthy of your third finest handkerchief? And here I was thinking you valued me at toilet paper.”

He paused at the door to glance back at her. “I do extend my apologies for my...behaviour. I think I’m just beginning to understand you.”

She found herself uncomfortable in the honesty of his gaze and looked down. When she felt brave enough to look up again he was gone, the door closing softly behind him. She didn’t doubt that no one had ever spoken to Sebastian this way. And he had lived a very long time and had a very many people speak to him. Then again Grell had always been filterless, pissing off almost everyone she came into contact with. If she could be bothered to be self-analytical then perhaps she might delve into the idea that this could be a boundary she set between herself and everyone else as a defense mechanism. As it was she couldn’t focus on much beyond how cold it was. Sebastian’s warning echoed in her mind as she shuffled a little closer to the warmth. Bloody butler. 

“Sebastian?”

That damn brat. 

Ciel pushed the door open, sending a chill right down Grell’s spine. She stood, stumbling back hastily as the kid stamped around the room, making her bones ache with each thump. 

“Sebastian,” Ciel snapped. 

“Watch it!” Grell yelled, and Ciel looked down. 

“Oh. You. What are you doing here?”

Grell didn’t like his expression. Lofty and superior as usual. “Bassy’s setting me up a bed for the night. Least he could do after all that business with the dollmaker.”

“Why on Earth would he allow the monster who murdered my dear Aunt to stay the night in my manor?”

She shrugged. “He’s not so far from a monster himself.”

Ciel bent down, but she couldn’t run. She’d barely taken one step when she tripped over the handkerchief. A hand wrapped around her waist before she could even get up. 

“How dare you? Release me!” she insisted, struggling. Ciel ripped the handkerchief from around her and she struggled to keep the robe closed, arms pinned to her sides. 

He ignored her. “How can you compare yourself to him? You’re a vicious murdering freak, he’s just a demon. It’s in his nature. You’re willfully evil.”

She growled, enraged by the feeling of his fingers tightening around her. “Oh whatever. You humans. You’re supposed to be so pure, yet here you are, in a contract with a demon? Murdering whoever you want on your path to revenge, now who’s the real monster here?”

“Shut up!” Ciel roared, and threw her at the wall. 

She didn’t have time to scream. Luckily it wasn’t a wall of stone she hit. It was a wall of flesh. A familiar white cuffed hand wrapped around her. 

“Master. What is the meaning of this?”

Ciel glanced between her and him, eventually shrugging and pushing past them to the door. “I’m too tired for this. Whatever. Sebastian - when you’re done with this game I want you to bring me some tea. I can’t sleep.”

“Yes, Sir.”

Grell sniffed. “Why don’t you just lick his feet?”

Placing her down on the bedside table, Sebastian started setting things out. “If he ordered me to, then I would do so. Where’s...the handkerchief?”

She was shivering, the gown couldn’t be tightened anymore. “He must have taken it. Must say? Being tiny like this is less than ideal. I’m not nearly menacing enough. What on Earth are you making?”

Sebastian smiled, eyes closed, head tilted. “It’s a mouse cage. Repurposed. What do you think?”

It had a thick, fur cover over most of it, with a flap at the front, presumably to be rolled down once she was inside. Inside, what looked like doll furniture, although more comfortable than most doll furniture she’d seen.

“I thought you didn’t have any doll’s things?” she asked, lifting the handkerchiefs on the bed. Sponge?

“Sponge,” Sebastian confirmed. “I cut it from a spare pillow and sewed around it a case. Then I built the frame, the bedside table, and all other wooden accompaniments from an old jewelry box. Most of the soft furnishings are handkerchiefs, as well as a scrap of that tailcoat you destroyed made of wool. Knew it would still go to some use. Anyway, I made several small food items and placed them in the makeshift cupboard. I doubted you’d like to drink from a mouse’s feeding trough so there’s also a thimble of water in there as well. I pressed the handkerchief sheets and they should be still warm. I hope it’s to your liking.”

Grell blinked, testing the bed. Soft. “You did all this after being gone for what, two minutes? I know you’re a demon but - wow. Colour me impressed.”

Sebastian nodded. “If I couldn’t manage this, what kind of butler would I be?”

She laid down, already warmed by the thick outer coating of the fur and the handkerchiefs she was slipping under. 

“Finally, it’s so damn cold in this house,” she sighed, already sleepy. “Bassy, what time is it?”

He checked his pocketwatch. “Shortly after 3 in the morning. If there’s nothing else, I must attend my Master.”

Grell pulled the covers over her head, tucking the blankets in around her feet. “Nope. Aside from being, ooh, just over a foot tall? I’m just peachy.”

“Well then. Good night,” he murmured. 

She closed her eyes, snapping them open when she heard the creak of the cage door. 

“Hey! B - Bassy! What - Why are you locking me in like a pet?”

Sebastian winked. “I’m afraid my Master is not too fond of you, and I worry what he might do while we slept. Don’t be concerned, Grell. I’ve put a strong enchantment on this cage. No one will get in except me.”

She threw aside the covers, angry. “Or out, correct? You plan to keep me in here, hm? Answer me, Bassy!”

He shrugged, half way out the door. “Get some rest. The cage is big enough to contain your growth overnight, so don’t worry about that. I’ll be back when my work is done.”

“When are you letting me out? Bassy, don’t you dare!” she yelled, rattling the bars, but he wagged a finger and the fur fell down over the gap, enclosing her in darkness.


	2. Chapter 2

Days had passed. Sebastian cared for her, fed her, and kept her. Ignored her threats and screams. Ciel was, as usual, completely unsympathetic to anyone’s plight but his own. The servants were too terrified of Sebastian to investigate the muted screams from his room. Even her fellow grim reapers couldn’t answer her call. They either hated her, or were in a similar position of being too small to help. William or Rory were the only ones who might help and, after all, only because William followed the rules to a T and Rory was too scared of her to defy her. 

 

It didn’t matter how much magic she charged into her hands, or how hard she rattled the bars, even with all her Reaper strength, she couldn’t overcome Sebastian’s power.

 

“I hope you understand, Bassy,” she spat, watching him hatefully. “As soon as you move me to a bigger cage - and you must, this one is getting far too small - as soon as I’m outside of this enchantment, I’m going to rip. Your. Skin. From your face, and -”

 

“When you’re quite finished, I’ve already considered this,” he said, and Grell watched him place something on the ground. “It folds out. It’s a dog cage.”

 

She laughed madly, pulling at her hair. “Wow. You know, Bassy, I’m into roleplaying, including pet play, but this is quite ridiculous. I’m going to hurt you for this. Badly. And I’m going to enjoy it.”

 

Sebastian constructed the cage, still smiling. “Oh, do calm down, Grell. I’ve kept you three days, not three years. Hardly a prison sentence. Now. Are you going to behave, or shall I be forced to sedate you while I do this?”

 

She straightened her hair a little and his her rage, looking as presentable as she could, half naked, bursting out of both clothes and the small cage she was in. 

 

“Why, of course I will, Bassy.”

 

He sighed. “Sedation it is.”

 

She panicked, rocking the cage. “No! Not again, please, I can’t - I don’t want to be trapped again - please -”

 

The cage was rocked too harshly, sending it to the ground too suddenly for Sebastian’s demonic speed to catch. It dazed her, sent her spinning. She felt blood trickling into her eyes, but didn’t have space in the cage to reach up and clear them. Frustrated and angry, she started to cry. 

 

“Please let me go,” she whimpered, softly. “I don’t - I don’t understand why you’re keeping me like this, you don’t even like me.”

 

She felt hands on her face, clearing her eyes. Sebastian. She lunged at him, thinking she was free, but he’d just morphed his arms through the bars of the cage. The new cage. 

 

“W - wait...how did I get here? I - I didn’t even feel myself moving.”

 

Sebastian smiled his eyes shut. “I’m simply one hell of a -”

 

She cut him off by attacking his arm, savagely ripping into his sleeve with her teeth. He simply retracted his arm. 

 

“Well, that was uncalled for. Not very well behaved at all, are you?”

 

Grell rolled her eyes as pointedly as she could. “You know, there was a time when I would love for you to be roughly handling me so, keeping me in a cage and telling me to behave?”

 

“What changed exactly?” Sebastian asked, reaching back through with a wet cloth. She let him dab at her wounded head. 

 

“Maybe the fact that you’re keeping me very much against my will. Maybe the way I was already kidnapped and - and forced to do things against my will. Maybe the way you revealed how you hate yourself for having feelings for me? A girl can only take so much.”

 

He paused to replace the bloodied cloth with a clean one. “I am being...reprehensibly rude. I know. I’ve needed a little time, to think. Do you need a cold compress for this, or are your reaper abilities taking care of it?”

 

“Forget my head, what I need is new clothes. You may like keeping me a pet, but I will not roll around naked for your entertainment. Get me my damn clothes. My clothes. Not doll’s clothes, not children’s clothes, I swear to Lucifer, I want my own things. I don’t care that they won’t fit. Please. I need to feel like myself again.”

 

He gathered the rags, considering it. “I doubt the coat can be found, after all Mr Jackson and his henchmen are not likely to keep a ‘lost and found’ so to speak of their victim’s clothes, but I can certainly slip into your apartment and get anything you need from your wardrobe.”

 

Grell stood, and then immediately sat back down. “Alright. I’ll take that cold compress, you bastard. But, no. Don’t even think  about going anywhere near my place. Last thing I need is you getting your Butler-y hands all over my organised mess. Just...get some clothes that will fit me.”

 

In the three days that he’d been holding her captive, she hadn’t grown back to full size like he’d predicted. She’d only managed to grow to about...four feet high? Maybe a little less? At least she’d be able to stand in this cage. Just. It wouldn’t be long before she outgrew it. And then what? A shed?

 

She looked up. Sebastian was...drooling?

 

“Your place is...messy?”

 

She sighed, running a hand through knotted, dirty hair. “Yep. Total pigsty. And that’s the way I goddamn like it. I see that weird - obsessive - little - twinkly look in your eye. Don’t go near my stuff.”

 

“Alright. Fine. May I, at least, offer you this basin of hot water to cleanse yourself with?”

 

He pushed it through what was probably her future feeding slot. Great. She pulled it closer, enjoying the heat it provided. It came with a small tray of grooming gear. A hairbrush, a sponge. 

 

“Well, Bassy, this robe doesn’t do much for covering one’s modesty but I won’t do away with it completely, not while you’re in the room.”

 

He inclined his head. “I have duties to be getting to. I shall organise what we've discussed, your clothes and such, and will bring dinner up at 6.30.”

 

“Wait,” Grell called, before he swept out of the room. “You said you’d needed time to think. Come to a conclusion you’d care to share with me yet?”

 

He smiled, eyes crinkling like they did. “Just that I think I want to keep you. I want you to belong to me.”

 

Grell swallowed, throat dry. “B - Bassy…”

 

“I’ll pick you out something red, Grell. That’s your favourite, right? Red?”

 

“Y - yes,” she simply muttered as he left, too stunned to put up the fight already brewing inside her like a storm. Sebastian wanted her? And was smiling about it? Strange. Even stranger? She found herself questioning whether she hadn’t been wishing for this ever since they’d met. Wishful thinking, indeed.

 

She wondered what Sebastian would pick for her.


	3. Chapter 3

“Pink. Bloody pink?!”

 

Sebastian gave a gentle shrug. “The saleswoman said these pyjamas are very...in?”

 

Grell threw them back at him, clutching the robe closer. “You said you’d pick something red!”

 

“And what’s so wrong with pink?” Sebastian asked, letting his eyes glow. 

 

“It’s a disgusting colour.”

 

She thought back, remembering the laughter of children and those bright pink, gingham dresses they wore while she was stuck in pale grey suits. Heathens. She sat and turned with her back to Sebastian.

 

He tapped her shoulder through the bars. “What about this?”

 

She looked over her shoulder. Red and black satin. Familiar. Very…familiar. She snatched them, breathing in deeply. 

 

“You - you went into my house!” she accused, hugging the material. “After I expressly asked you not to! Are you planning on violating my every privacy and intimate?”

 

Sebastian turned to let her change. “I didn’t clean, don’t worry. In fact, I - I knew I wouldn’t be able to resist, so I blindfolded myself.”

 

She stood, discarding the demon-smelling robe and enjoying the feel of her own pyjamas.

 

“But how did you find my favourites if you were blindfolded?” She noticed a small bag, more of her things poking out of it.

 

“I used my sense of smell and picked up whatever smelled like you the most. A few outfits. I did have to restrain myself quite strongly, as I could smell all manner of dust, dirt and uncleanliness in that unholy place. But I did not clean,” Sebastian promised, turning to find Grell comfortably dressed. 

 

Grell rubbed her arms. Satin was such a beautiful material, so soft, smooth. And hard. It didn’t stretch and give easily, it either fit you or it didn’t. He’d made an excellent selection too; truly these were her favourites. A pair of black, three-quarter pants and a long, red kimono shirt. 

 

“I did smell a lot of paint,” Sebastian commented, sliding a dinner tray through. “Maybe I could see your work, some time?”

 

“Are you - are you really trying to mess with my head?”

 

“Excuse me?” Sebastian asked, pouring tea. “You’ll want to eat those croquetes before they go cold, by the way.”

 

She ignored them. “You admit you have feelings for me, feelings which you ignore and hate, by the way. And then, while I’m in a supernaturally vulnerable position, you kidnap me and keep me in a cage like a damn dog? Now you want to see my artwork? Hmm? You think you can bring me crocks -”

 

“Croquets”

 

“- And ask personal questions and just wine and dine me like - like I’m - like I’m...Look, either let me go or make your intentions clear.”

 

Sebastian stirred the tea and added it to the untouched tray. “Did I not do so already?”

 

Sullenly, she picked at the lamb shanks. “Not clearly.”

 

“I want you to belong to me. I suppose I’m not going about this in the most chivalrous way possible. I didn’t want you to leave and I doubted you’d stay.”

 

“Willingly?” she asked, blithely, folding her arms. “You do realise I’ve been attracted to you since we met? And that aside, if you bothered to politely ask; ‘why, Grell, would you like to stay for some bloody tea’ I very likely would have said yes, you foolish demon.”

 

He shrugged. She’d never seen him look this...schoolboy. Like she was a sharp headmistress, giving him a telling-off. He even fiddled his hands, eyes focused on the melting butter and swimming gravy. 

 

“I’m...struggling. With these feelings. I wasn’t sure - what I wanted. Closing the cage door was an impulsive decision, that I do now regret. I took advantage of your being ill and...vertically challenged. To keep you.”

 

Grell started really eating, realising the many meals she’d refused were catching up to her and reminding her how very hungry she was. 

 

“You have to realise how silly this is. Let me out, let me move around and be free to come and go. Then, and only then, will I consider...being yours,” she finished, not used to being on this end of an infatuation. 

 

Sebastian didn’t look any more comfortable than she was, and it reminded her that he didn’t even want these emotions. So wrapped up in machismo and confidence, he never thought he’d fall for...someone like her.

 

“Logically, of course I should release you.”

 

Grell looked up, wiping away gravy with her back of her hand. “But emotionally, you’re insecure about whether I’m going to stay or flee?”

 

“Don’t do that, here, you’re making a mess of yourself,” he said, offering her a handkerchief. 

 

“Let me make something clear, darling,” she said, standing and holding onto the bars, nose to nose with him. “I will never be yours like this. I won’t be with someone who is disgusted by me, how can you even ask it of me? And even if I were to be yours. What would you have me do? Wear dresses and a mask, so that I might walk beside you, without embarrassing you in public?”

 

He pursed his lips. “I don’t know. I know that I...want you. To stay.”

 

She kicked the bars, frustrated. “How cruel you are. You _knew_ that I had feelings for you. And you ignored them, called me revolting. Oh don’t look so guilty, you think I don’t remember? How many times have I thrown myself at you, only to be rejected, hmm?”

 

Sebastian nodded. “I apologise for that. I...I should -” he reached for the lock, and Grell got her hopes up. “But you’re going to leave. I’m patient. I think I could wait out the years until you agree to be mine. Neither of us are shackled by the short life of a human.”

 

Grell stooped to pick up a gravy coated croquet. “Is that so? Here’s what I think of that.”

 

She threw it at him, and of course with his damn demon abilities he caught it in a handkerchief and quickly set it aside. 

 

“You can’t keep me like this.”

 

“I can manage.”

 

“I’d kill myself before being forced against my will. It’s not in my nature to be treated so,” she added, quiet, leaning her back against the bars. 

 

A hand rubbed her shoulder. “I would never do that.”

 

The touch, after days of what was essentially solitary confinement? Felt pretty good. But she felt betrayed by her body’s enjoyment of the contact. 

 

“Don’t touch me.”

 

The hand withdrew. She missed it already.


	4. Chapter 4

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> I don't usually do flashbacks but I was feeling it so :p here ya go
> 
> Flashback takes place on day 2 - Grell is still smol at this point and in the mouse cage

~~~~The second day had probably been the roughest. Grell thought of it often.

 

-

 

“Unhand me, Sebastian, I swear, I’m going to kill you!”

 

“Settle down, please. Your bones are small and easily broken right now, I don’t - Grell!”

 

She’d dug her teeth into the sensitive skin between thumb and forefinger, drawing blood. He chuckled, and that made her bite down all the harder. 

 

“Really? Biting?” he chuckled some more, and pinned her to the table with one hand to examine the bite. 

 

She scrabbled at his hand, screaming with rage. “You keep me like a pet, I’ll bite you like one.”

 

“I just need to measure you in order to - please, stay still - in order to track your growth rate and ensure your health - please stop kicking me, you’re getting dirt on my cuff.”

 

Grell would spit at him if her spit wasn’t smaller than a rain droplet. Really, this whole experience was making her dislike things she’d previously loved. Rough handling being one of them. She’d be lying if she wasn’t enjoying just a little bit. But damn if it didn’t also make her incredibly angry. 

 

“How about this?”

 

 

Sebastian pinned her underneath a paperweight. Big mistake. She screamed louder than ever, blue bloody murder, underneath a grinning, ginger cat. 

 

“I’m not letting you up until I’ve measured you, so you may as well behave and stay still,” Sebastian suggested, frowning in concentration.

 

Grell smiled tightly. “You say that as though you’ve never met me. Since when do I behave?”

 

A smile tugged at Sebastian’s mouth. “I’m sure I could persuade you to be a good girl.”

 

“E - excuse me?” Grell spluttered. 

 

No one had ever called her that, not even the men who’d fallen over themselves trying to sleep with her. She still struggled under the paperweight, although half-heartedly. Distractedly. Was he serious? She had to fight hard to suppress that instinct to be loud, flirtatious and aggressive. It felt weird to be on this side of...whatever this was. It was like having the rug pulled out from under her. Suddenly all those witty comebacks and overt come-ons evaporated. So she was left shell-shocked, barely pushing at the cat, letting Sebastian lift her feet and measure them.  

 

“Did I make you uncomfortable? I apologise.”

 

Grell shook herself. “Just planning your slow painful death. I’d like to start by pinning you under a rather large boulder. Much like this silly, bloody cat.”

 

Sebastian sighed. “Must you hate me quite so much?”

 

“I must,” Grell spat, but could speak no further. 

 

Her chest felt strange, light. The feeling had been building but she thought it was just the pressure of the paperweight on her chest. She couldn’t breathe _. She couldn’t breathe_. 

 

“B - Bassy - “

-

When she opened her eyes again, she was warm, pleasantly so. Clean cotton pressed against her cheek and she leant into it, lids and bones heavy. Focusing, she saw buttons. Big buttons. Sebastian’s shirt…

 

She moved slowly, so slowly that it wouldn’t be noticeable. Just inching her neck, bit by bit, until she could look up, and confirm that she was laying on Sebastian’s chest. Sleeping. He was sleeping. And this was her only chance. Grell slowly rose to her hands and knees, keeping her eyes trained on his face to watch for signs of waking as she inched backwards, diagonally down his torso. The window was right beside his bed. Just a hop, skip and a broken window latch away from freedom. 

 

Sebastian shifted and she winced, freezing. He just sighed and rolled. She would have been relieved that he was still asleep, but he rolled right on top of her, squashing both her and her chances of escape. Not that being surrounded by his scent and his perfectly pressed clothes wasn’t just lovely (and she had to admit that it was, even just a little bit) but she wanted out. Out of his grasp, out of his room, out of the whole damn Phantomhive estate. She crawled on her belly, in what little room she had, with what little strength she could manage. Emerging like a butterfly from a chrysalis, she finally could breathe. From what she could see, the window was just inches away. Feet to her, but all the same, it was close. 

 

She stood, imbalanced by the softness of the mattress and stepped forward slowly, foot by foot. Clambered onto the window ledge. Closer to the latch. So close. She didn’t want to look back. People woke more easily when they were watched, and a demon would be no exemption. The latch was high, and she wasn’t quite back to full strength, but she managed to reach it and twist, slowly. It was old, she knew it would creak. Grell briefly argued back and forth with herself over whether to turn it quickly and try to escape before he could get to her, or continue to twist slowly and risk him waking up before she could even open it. 

 

Decisions decisions. 

 

She decided to be fast, twisted the latch and pushed hard with everything she had. Turned out, everything she had was more than enough for the old, loose window and she fell forward into the open air. Grell managed to scold herself for less than a second before her fall was stopped. An irritatingly familiar hand wrapped around her waist, tight.

 

“For someone so small, you’re really quite a nuisance, Grell.”

 

Grell screamed. “I was almost free! Why can’t you just let me be free? I hate you!”

 

His face darkened. 

 

“And if I hadn’t woken up just now, you would have splattered on the ground like bird droppings. Is that what you want? Let’s see shall we?” he asked, and dangled her by the ill-fitting robe out of the window. 

 

“I’m sure I could have worked something out,” Grell snapped, hiding how terrified she was, feeling the robe slipping off of her shoulders. 

 

Sebastian smiled thinly. “Of course. You would have worked out how to sprout wings like an angel, yes? Should we test it out?”

 

“W - what are you doing?”

 

“Testing your flight capabilities.”

 

He swung her lightly, and the robe grew ever looser. She managed to hold her ground for a few seconds more, but Sebastian’s ever slipping fingers finally got to her. 

 

“Alright, alright, I yield damn it.”

 

He made to pull her back in, and she was already hating that smug smirk he had, but then the robe slipped completely off her. She would have fallen, but she managed to grab onto the sleeve. Sebastian scooped her up along with the robe, averting his gaze. It wasn’t as if he hadn’t already seen her naked, after all, she’d been living in handkerchiefs and hand-made robes, they weren’t exactly modest layers. She snatched the robe up, covering her midsection, red with humiliation, and not the kind she liked. 

 

“Perhaps I went too far.”

 

She ignored him, letting him place her back in the cage. The bed and everything was a little small now since she’d been growing for a day. Eyes were on her, she could feel it. But she wanted to punish him. Grell knew the silent treatment could be a cruel trick. For someone who spent so much time being loud, it made people uncomfortable when she did this, she’d known it since she was a kid. 

 

“Grell?”

 

A day, maybe two, she thought, sitting cross-legged on the floor of the cage. She could be quiet for that long. Maybe use it as time to think. 

 

“You know I wouldn’t have let anything happen.”

 

She’d always wanted to try meditation, maybe now was the time to try it out. Might quell a little of her rage.

 

“This is childish, Grell.”

 

Exercise was an option, after all this kidnapping diet was probably doing a number on her already minimal body fat.

 

“I’m sorry.”

 

Grell looked up. “Hm?”

 

He knelt beside the cage. “Whether I could have saved you or not, I knowingly put you in danger. I’m sorry.”

 

She stood, and moved so she was right in front of his face. “Thank you. See? Manners? You know what else would be good manners?”

 

Sebastian sighed good-naturedly. “I’m not letting you out, Grell.”

 

Scowling, she let her head bang against the bars. “Wonderful. Bassy, do you -”

 

“SEBASTIAN!”

 

He rolled his eyes, straightening his shirt and hurrying to put on his jacket. “Not even a full nap and they’re already destroying the house without me.”

 

She ran to the other side of the cage to keep up with him. “Can you - Bassy - Can you bring some fresh water when you come back?”

 

Pausing at the door, he smiled that irritating smile. “Of course. What kind of butler would I be, if I -”

 

“Just go, foolish demon.”

 

\--- 

 

Conditions had improved since then. Her own pyjamas, a bigger cage, actual food rather than literal crumbs? And she wouldn’t admit it, but the smell of the house was a nice change. A messy room may be visually appealing to her, but she hadn’t realised how off-putting the smell was until spending a few nights smelling lavender and whatever else Sebastian seasoned himself with. Sleeping in a room with another person was a novel experience. Smelling him, hearing him breathe, sheets sliding over his skin. She wondered if, if she wasn’t here, Sebastian would be sleeping nude. As it was, he wore a pair of soft pants and nothing else. Then again if a servant or his Master walked in, that would make for an awkward and uncomfortable encounter. 

 

“I’ll do it.”

 

She sat up, startled out of her thoughts, chastising herself for thinking of him that way and reminding herself of the situation she was in. 

 

“Hm? You’ll do what?”

 

Sebastian sat in front of her cage. “I’ll let you out.”

 


	5. Chapter 5

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> a day early! cause it's kinda short, sorry :p but also working on a smol follow up chapter as well as next week's (even though I generally do short chapters as it is) to make up for it

“I’ll let you out.”

 

She wasn’t impressed. “In a hundred years, right?”

 

“I’ll let you out...into this room. Just this room. Door and windows locked.”

 

“Am I supposed to be grateful for that? That’s just...a slightly bigger cage, isn’t it?”

 

He smiled softly, reaching for the lock. “Maybe so, but you can move around, read my books if you want. Although, at this hour my Master is asleep, so do try not to disturb him.”

 

The urge to upturn her nose and protest by not moving from the cage quickly evaporated when the door swung open. She clambered out and right over him to stand on his bed, ready as if she was about to be attacked. 

 

“You’re growing again,” he noted, closing the cage door behind her. “You’ll be five feet by tomorrow evening. Do get down from there, your feet are very dirty.”

 

She sniffed. “Like I care about my captor’s bedding.”

 

“Please, Grell,” he said, tiredly.

 

“Well now that’s unusual,” she murmured, jumping down. “When was the last time you begged me?”

 

He breezed past her to straighten the sheets. “If you knew how soft these were, you’d be more careful.”

 

Grell walked around, observing his books and things. Not surprising, considering he was a demon who was just here to earn a soul and then leave, but he didn’t have anything...personal. No photos, not even an ornament. His bedside table housed books, a clock, unused candles and some documents that looked all official and boring. No personal clothes inside the ajar wardrobe either, just suits. And an apron?

 

“Do you wear this, or does it belong to that rather shrill dullard who works here?” she asked, pulling it out to inspect it further. 

 

“Cleaning is...messy work. I wouldn’t want to compromise the quality of my clothes.”

 

She grinned. “That’s a funny image. You on your knees in an apron and headband, shining the master’s shoes.”

 

Sebastian sighed, taking the apron from her and putting it back. “Hilarious. Is there anything you’d like to do?”

 

“Hmm,” she mused, jumping up to sit on the bed. “I’d like you to put the apron on and do some cleaning.”

 

“Apart from when you muddy my sheets, my chamber is always completely spotless. I believe there’s a chess board in the...”

 

He trailed off as Grell rolled up to the head of the bed and swept everything off the bedside table.

 

“Oh no, Bassy, there’s a mess in your room whatever will you do?” she purred, relaxing into his pillows.

 

“Do you think it’s wise to disturb my things the very first time I give you some freedom?” Sebastian asked, bending to pick his things up.

 

She watched him over the edge of the bed. “I think after days of humiliating captivity, you owe me. How come you’re not wearing the apron?”

 

Sebastian stood stiffly, bedside table restored. “A pile of books on the floor is not exactly a heavy-duty mess. What are you doing?”

 

She’d slid off the bed, sauntering over to the fireplace. Plucking a stoke and leaning on it like a cane, she smiled that evil smile she saved for when she was feeling particularly sadistic. Sebastian sighed again and she knew he could have stopped her, but he didn’t. Dust, soot and rubble showered down, perhaps a little more than she’d suspected would be up there. All over the floor, all over the rug, even sprinkling a little onto her hair. 

 

“Do you need the apron now, or should I keep going?”

 

\---

 

Throughout the night, Grell made messes, tore up clothes, destroyed furniture. And, apron-clad, Sebastian fixed it all. It shifted quickly from playful teasing to the cathartic release of built up anger. Yelling unintelligibly and ripping books apart, then watching breathlessly as he sewed them back together and replaced them on the shelf. The chair was the most fun, ripping its cushions open with fingernails alone and tearing out the batting as if it were fluffy white innards. Slamming it’s flayed frame against the floor and walls until it was in splinters. Sebastian swept it up, chuckling.

 

“Alright, even I cannot collect every splinter from between the stones of the floor and the fibres of the rug and piece it all back together. I shall order a new chair to replace this one in the morning, although I doubt its makers are still in business. This was an antique chair over sixty years old after all.”

 

Grell shrugged, and slid down the footboard of the bed to sit on the floor. “I suppose it was worth it to see you crawling around in an apron. And if the brat really cares about the damn chair, I have a few at mine that are probably antique with how old they are.”

 

Sebastian appeared in front of her, hand outstretched. “Family heirlooms?”

 

She grunted softly as he pulled her up. “The implication being that my family cared about me enough to give me anything, let alone antique furniture? Don’t make me laugh, my sides ache already. I found them in a dump, just like most things in my house. Probably the reason it smells so bad.”

 

“Your family were...unkind to you?”

 

“Are you really asking me a personal question right now?”

 

He smiled tightly. “It’s either this or I begin persuading you to let me clean your house.”

 

“I was the last child in a house already full of them,” Grell immediately began. “Alright, I’m joking, I won’t tell you the whole story. Just the basics. Terrible mother, smothered by terrible children, terrible because they were being raised by a more than terrible father. It’s rather a cliche, but that’s how it went. And, not that I ever really told them...about myself. But the one time I was brave enough to steal my sister’s stockings and skirt and try them on...they cast me out. Quite unsurprising. They were disgusted. So was I, at the time. There were...a few more horrors that happened before they made me leave with nothing but the clothes on my back, but I left it all behind a long time ago.”

 

“That sounds dreadful,” Sebastian murmured, making Grell flinch slightly as he reached to pluck some errant fireplace debris from her hair.

 

She looked down and noticed Sebastian was still holding her hand. She snatched it away. Despite her love of the colour red, she cursed her cheeks for flooding with it. She twisted away from him, hoping he wouldn't notice.

 

“Anyway. If you want to clean my house, you’ll have to take me with you. There’s more than a couple of, uh...private things I would want to hide,” she joked, flashing him a ridiculous playful smile. 

 

He raised a brow. “I know you’re being glib, but if that was a serious offer I would seriously consider it.”

 

“No,” she said firmly, wagging a finger as she walked back to her cage. “Now, come on, tuck me in. I’m tired after all this destruction.”

 

“Is  _ that _ a serious offer?”

 

“Don’t push your luck, Bassy.”


	6. Chapter 6

“Why didn’t you attack?”

 

Grell looked up. “Hm?”

 

Sebastian was sitting up in bed reading, Grell doing the same in her cage. Neither quite ready to sleep, they’d been sitting in silence for hours. 

 

“You warned me days ago that if I ever gave you the chance, you’d...how did you put it? Rip the skin from my face?”

 

She shrugged. “We’ve fought before and I know we’re pretty evenly matched when I have my death scythe. As I’ve previously stated, I’d love to have a proper deathmatch with you, but a small servant’s bedroom? Not exactly a grand stadium for a battle royale. Our final act deserves a much finer stage, don’t you think?”

 

“You still had a window to do me more than a little damage. Why hold back?”

 

“Does the chair think I held back?”

 

He smiled. “Now you’re avoiding the question.”

 

“Fine,” she snapped, starting to shine her glasses. “I’m...not in a position to piss you off. It would be different if I could incapacitate you and escape, but you said yourself - I can’t exactly breakthrough demon magic. So while it would be...thrilling. To hurt you. It’s not worth...whatever would come next.”

 

“You think I would hurt you?”   
  


“You have before. A lot.”

 

“Things are different now. I’m...sorry.”

 

She sighed good-naturedly. “I’m not used to you apologising. It’s refreshing.”

 

Sebastian took on that smug look. “Good manners are the pride of -”

 

“Ugh!” she groaned, loudly. “Not another speech about Phantomhive pride. Please. And here I was struggling to fall asleep; one more soliloquy about the brat’s line and I might just pass out altogether.”

 

She set aside her book and started to settle down. 

 

“Goodnight,” Sebastian murmured as Grell rolled her back to him. “I -”

 

“What?” she asked, glancing over her shoulder.

 

“I don’t want to hurt you.”

 

His voice was quiet and almost soft enough to make her feel safe. Almost. 


	7. Chapter 7

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Mild warning for violence this chapter. Broken bones but nothing overly graphic

“Why not?”

 

“Because I have just ten minutes before Master Ciel will awaken, and I already -”

 

“So just for ten minutes then.”

 

Sebastian sighed, crouching beside the cage. “Five.” He slid the lock and she burst out past him, and straight onto his bed.

 

“Can I have these?” she all but moaned, rolling and wrapping the sheets around herself. 

 

“Absolutely not. They aren’t mine to give away,” Sebastian insisted, halting her and tipping her out onto the bottom sheet. “Off. Now.”

 

Her smile widened. “If I can have the sheets.”

 

“...I can get you other sheets.”

 

“You have the other sheets, I want these ones.”

 

He sighed, relenting. “Fine. I will go and purchase the exact same sheets from the market. And you still want these ones?”

 

“I do,” Grell said, then stood and started pulling, spinning and wrapping it around herself to pull more of it away from him. Not three spins before she lost her balance, and with arms ensconced in the sheets had no way of protecting herself. She already knew he’d catch her, but she wasn’t ready for the way he cradled her as if they were dancing, staring into her eyes.

 

“Let me go,” she whispered.

 

And if anything he got closer. “But I -”

 

“Now.”

 

He set her upright, but the eye contact was still heavy. “One more moment.”

 

“Of - of what?”

 

“Of time out of the cage before I attend my duties.”

 

She nodded. “Right. Well. Can I pick out another book?”

 

“Of course,” Sebastian said, smiling slyly. She glared back at him, irritated. “Something wrong, Grell?”

 

“Piss off,” she muttered, examining the books at her level. “How come you don’t have anything in fantasy?”

 

“Maybe because you’re looking at the lower shelves containing non-fiction and fantasy is the top row. What would you like? Tolkien? Pratchett? King? Something more obscure?”

 

Grell looked up, but decided not only could she not be bothered climbing the bookcase, but Sebastian wouldn’t have time before work to dig her out of the resulting mess once she inevitably pulled it down. 

 

“Surprise me.”

 

Sebastian cocked his head, then smiled and pulled one out. “Here.”

 

She snorted derisively. “Alice in Wonderland? Really? It’s a children’s book.”

 

“Have you read it?”   
  


“...Not recently.”

 

“Then I think you may enjoy it. Besides, it’s appropriate for our situation. All the shrinking and growing.”

 

Grell took the book, rolling her eyes. “Fine. Although I could do with some of that cake that makes her grow.”

 

Sebastian checked his pocket watch. “I think I prefer bite-size Grell. I must go. Come on, back in the cage.”

 

“Bite-size?” she spluttered, letting him steer her over to it. “I’ll have you know I’m almost too big for this cage now, and interested to know where exactly you think you’re going to keep me next.”

 

He’d already locked the door behind her and was breezing to his own door. “You’re five foot two, hardly a behemoth. Besides, I have a plan. Now, have a good day, Grell.”

 

She smiled bitterly. “I’d say same to you, but in fact, I hope you have a terrible day and come back realising that it’s bad karma from how you’re treating me. At least I’ve got Alice’s adventures to keep me distracted from captivity though, right?” she added sourly.

 

He hung on the door, conflicted. “Is there anything - other than letting you go - that I can do for you?”

 

A sullen shrug made him even more unwilling to leave. He crossed the room, picking up his sheets. 

 

“Here,” he said, passing them through the bars.

 

Grell let him drape them around her shoulders. “You know every day you keep me here makes me dislike you more.”

 

“If you say so.”

 

“What exactly are you implying?” she asked, blithely.

 

“Goodbye, Grell,” he called, ignoring her and closing the door behind himself. She heard the familiar soft click of the key locking the door and settled down in the sheets to read her book. 

 

_ ‘Chapter One: down the rabbit hole’ _

 

\---

 

Grell was thoroughly engrossed in the fourth chapter by the time the lock twisted again. 

 

“About time you came to check on me, Bassy, I could do with a little snack while I’m reading if it doesn’t trouble your busy timetable out there in the real world.”

 

“He’s very busy indeed. Far too busy to be bringing you snacks.”

 

Grell looked up, already irritated. The brat. “Where do you get off entering someone’s quarters whenever you want, hm?”

 

“He’s my servant. I’ll do with him and his room as I please,” Ciel said, walking around her cage to examine the room. “And since you are apparently now a part of his room, that includes you.”

 

“Think not,” Grell snapped, annoyed that she was too tall to stand her full height and had to stay on the ground, beneath him. “Not only do I not belong to him, but even if I did, that would not make me yours, in any case.”

 

“Wouldn’t it? Fairly certain the law regarding a servant’s pets would be on my side.”

 

“You’re an insolent little thing aren’t you? Calling me a pet. Rich.”

 

Ciel smiled at her, leaning on his cane in front of the cage. “You’re on your knees in a cage, drinking from a bowl, just waiting for your Master to come home and let you run around a bit. Don’t think I didn’t hear your trashing this room the other night. You’re lucky Sebastian can fix whatever damage you cause or I’d have you put down. Oh look, now you’re foaming at the mouth. A feral dog if ever I’ve seen one.”

 

Grell laughed acidly. “Do you have any idea why Sebastian is even doing this? You really think he’d kill me?”

 

“If I order him to, he’ll chop you up into little pieces and use your rancid body parts to fertilise the lawn.”

 

She didn’t show it, but that got to her a little bit. It was true; whilever he controlled Sebastian, her life was in his hands.

 

Ciel continued, still smiling imperiously. “Oh, and your little toy, the chainsaw? I’m taking it to the watchmaker in the market today. She’s going to take it apart and make it into a lovely decoration.”

 

“Don’t you dare!” Grell snarled, trying to reach him through the bars of the cage.

 

She realised seconds too late that this was what he’d been angling for, cursing her impulsive nature as soon the first strike of the cane came down on her arm. Then another, and another, and another, ignorant to her shrieks of pain. He moved fast for a human, managing to get in several good, sickeningly solid hits before she succeeded in pulling her bruised, bleeding arm back in. Fighting hard not to cry, she backed away to the other side of the cage.

 

“Like I said my first night here...you’re the monster,” she spat, cradling her arm. 

 

Three broken fingers, a slight compound fracture and a lot of bruising. She continued to glare at him as she set the bone - with her reaper abilities it would heal incorrectly if not set. 

 

Ciel gripped the cane tightly, shaking with rage. “You’ll want to speak to me a lot kinder if you want to avoid that kind of beating in the future.”

 

Grell rolled her eyes. “Right. Of course.”

 

“I mean it. There’s a lesson in humility to be learned here. Apologise.”

 

“I must apologise? Me? You’ve just beaten me with a cane. I should think you ought to be apologising to me.”

 

He jutted his chin out, smug with pride. “If you don’t apologise for calling me a monster, I’m going to make Sebastian hurt you much more than I just did.”

 

“I’m no stranger to the broken arm,” Grell sneered, airily. 

 

Ciel crouched, resting his chin on the cane and smiling. “There are more ways to hurt you than to simply break bones. I know Sebastian wants you. I don’t know why, after all, you’re such an ugly, despicable creature. But I could make him act on those feelings.”

 

“You wouldn’t dare,” Grell sniffed, although she wasn’t so sure. Ciel wasn’t evil, not really, but he also wasn’t entirely good.

 

“You should know better than to question my resolve” Ciel said, and then reached up to his eye patch. “Sebas-”

 

“Alright! I - I apologise,” Grell snapped, hating herself for submitting. 

 

“For…” Ciel prompted, and Grell felt an unspeakable urge to rip his lips off and make him eat them. 

 

“For calling you a monster,” she ground out.

 

Ciel stood. “Better. Now if you don’t start treating me with some respect, I’ll make good on my threats. Say ‘Yes, My Lord’. Say it.”

 

Grell dug her fingernails into her arm, hurting it even more. “Yes. My. Lord.”

 

“Good. Did you think I would so easily forget how you cut down my Aunt in cold blood? Believe me, reaper, I intend to make you pay gravely for disrespecting the Phantomhive name.”

 

She stayed silent, not wanting to give him another reason to humiliate her with more pain or forced subservience. He looked disappointed. 

 

“You should submit to Sebastian. You’ve lusted after him for so long, and he finally wants you. How can you be so ungrateful?”

 

Grell smiled bitterly. “Perhaps because he’s keeping me against my will.”

 

Ciel raised a brow. “You’re the one who decided that.”

 

“I decided to lock the cage door and keep myself in here?”

 

“You decided to be angry. You could have accepted that he’d finally gained feelings for you and he would have let you out. You know he would.”

 

“The first thing that comes to mind when someone locks you up isn’t ‘ah what a darling, what a sweetheart’. It’s horror. Someone you trusted has decided to violate your rights and your boundaries,” Grell insisted, although she did agree that had she been accepting of Sebastian’s advances he would have let her out pretty immediately. 

 

Ciel scoffed, starting to leave. “You’ve been violating his boundaries since you met. You’re nothing but a hypocrite, Grell.”

 

Grell resisted the urge to throw her book at the door as it closed behind him. She wouldn’t get it back until Sebastian returned. Then again, asking him to give her the book back might be a better conversation starter than ‘oh hi, the brat threatened to make you hurt me, what’s for supper?’ And that was even leaving out the more sinister implications. 


	8. Chapter 8

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> if you've been reading this from the beginning *reread the tags now pls* they have been updated

“Do you intend to keep that creature locked in your room forever?” 

 

Sebastian smiled slightly. “Only until she agrees to be mine.”

 

Ciel scoffed, putting his tea down. “So forever then. He won’t submit to you. I visited him this morning, still as rude and disrespectful as ever.”

 

“She,” Sebastian corrected, putting the tea things away on the tray. “Would you like a light snack now or after the -”

 

“Do you presume to correct me? I think I know what a woman looks like. And  _ he  _ is no woman.”

 

Sebastian crouched by his chair. “Here, your tie is coming loose again. All that walking around town. I know humans do have very strict rules on gender, whether they acknowledge them or not, but where I come from...things are a little less...rigid. There we are, all done.”

 

He started to stand, but Ciel grabbed his arm. “Wait. Stay on your knees.”

 

“Sir?”

 

“Sebastian,” he said, and their relative seals lit up. “This is an order. Say that Grell is a man.”

 

Sebastian took in a breath. “My Lord, I know that you -”

 

“Do you intend to break the contract?”

 

“Of course not,” Sebastian said, smoothly. “Grell is a man. I simply wanted to -”

 

“He did say something rather interesting, that first night here,” Ciel went on, satisfied. 

 

“Grell called you a monster,” Sebastian said, avoiding pronouns. “I was told after the fact.”

 

Ciel stiffened, angry. “Something else. Besides insulting my name. He said ‘why don’t you just lick his feet’.”

 

“Grell has a...twisted sense of humour. She speaks without thinking of -”

 

“He,” Ciel snapped, slamming his hand on the table. “Never refer to Grell as ‘she’ in my presence again.”

 

“Yes, My Lord,” Sebastian said, a little amused. “I can see why you’re feeling ill-tempered. With the insomnia growing and the fact that we haven’t had a lead in months, I -”

 

“Lick my feet.”

 

Sebastian felt his hand burn at even the immediate impulse to disobey. He thought about eating his soul. He thought about going back to the room and spending some time with Grell. 

 

“Yes, Sir,” he murmured, and Ciel looked irritated that his voice and general disposition hadn’t changed at all from his usual amused self. 

 

He shifted, crawling under the tablecloth and getting on all fours between Ciel’s legs. Wrapping a hand around his ankle, Sebastian began dispassionately licking along Ciel’s laced, leather shoes. 

 

“I’m sick of him. He’s in a cage, yet everyone in this house seems to forget who is in charge here. Having the servants prepare meals and procure furniture for your little pet. I’m the Master of this house. I am the Lord Phantomhive,” Ciel went on, his voice muffled slightly by the table between them. 

 

He pushed his chair back slightly to watch Sebastian work. “Right, Sebastian?” he prompted, raising a foot and rubbing it on his face. 

 

“Yes, My Lord,” Sebastian assented, when his mouth wasn’t covered by the dirty sole. 

 

Ciel pressed the toe of the shoe into his mouth. “Much better. Now...take the shoes off.”

 

As soon as his stocking-clad foot slipped free of the unlaced shoe, Ciel started pressing it against Sebastian’s face again. Sebastian looked up and found Ciel’s smug grin at his subservient position. He remained neutral. 

 

“Put your tongue out,” Ciel ordered, delighting in the tickle of a wet tongue through the sock. “Now the stocking. Slow.”

 

They’d done this before a million times, Sebastian dressing and undressing him, slipping these soft, thin socks on and off, every day. Never like this. Sebastian let a fingernail drag ever so slightly as he eased the sock off. 

 

“Suck the toes. Show me that I am your Master.”

 

Speaking wasn’t advisable, but Sebastian could hear a certain gardener coming from the hall. 

 

“Sir, I -”

 

“Silence,” Ciel interrupted once again, focusing on Sebastian’s tongue cleaning the ball of his foot. 

 

“Well, I dug the bed like you wanted, sir, but there’s not much room for the flowers you requested. Maybe two of the breeds but not all three, otherwise they won’t grow, or they will grow but it’ll be really patchy - is something wrong, sir?”

 

Ciel had continued rubbing his feet, one clad one bare, on Sebastian’s face and tongue, the entire time the servant was standing right next to him. Twitching, when Sebastian sucked hard on his big toe.

 

“Nothing,” Ciel smiled. “The reds and oranges then. Forget the yellows.”

 

“Yes, Sir!”

 

Gone. Ciel returned his attention to Sebastian, whose face was now covered in spit. “I should have made him watch. It would be good for the servants to see you like this. Remind them all who’s the Master here. Me. Not you, and not your pet. Understand?”

 

“Yes, Sir,” Sebastian said, resisting the urge to clean his face with his handkerchief. 

 

“Tell me.”

 

“You are my Master.”

 

“And?”

 

“And Grell is a man.”

 

“Good. Get up. Don’t wipe that off your face until you’re back in your room. And don’t even think about being late serving my dinner again just so you can play with your dog.”

 

Sebastian stood composing himself. “Yes, Sir.”

 

“Now say it one more time.”

 

Sebastian resisted the need to smile. “You are my Master.”

 

“And Grell is…”

 

“...A man.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> lmao I know everybody already hated Ciel in the last chapter but oof this chapter you probably hate even more
> 
> *flees into the night*


	9. Chapter 9

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> So I've had writer's block for a few weeks as well as a pretty bad depressive episode but I think it's waning. 
> 
> I've been working on this scene in my mind since the beginning but I just can't seem to get it out onto page properly :/ so I've reached the point of 'eh fuck it' and here ya go <3 I might come back to tinker with it if inspiration comes to me
> 
> I'll try to get the weekly chapter schedule back on track but honestly I'm in a dark place. Living with less than accepting family members is rough.

“I’m disgusted! How dare this Queen think she’s worthy of the colour red? What a weakling. And the scene with the Hare - Bassy, are you listening?”

 

Sebastian turned from the laundry he was folding. “Yes, I am listening. I have work to do though, so you can’t have my full attention right now.”

 

Grell was a little affronted. Not only had he either ignored or not noticed her arm, but he’d come in and gone straight to work. Not a hello nor anything. She wondered if he was angry about the sheets. They’d gotten a little bloody but it wasn’t exactly her fault Ciel attacked her. 

 

“Who put a bee in your bonnet, Bassy?” she prodded, watching him mill about. “You’re in a sour mood today.”

 

Sebastian continued folding. “My Master believes your presence impedes my abilities as his butler. I can’t help but agree. I have been...distracted.”

 

“If we were courting like a regular couple I wouldn’t be such a burden on your time,” Grell pointed out, enjoying the illustrations in the margins of her book.

 

“Courting like a regular couple?” Sebastian echoed, some of his stern expression bleeding away into amusement.

 

Grell rolled her eyes. “Not that we’re courting at all. You know what I mean. We’d see each other a less frequently. Certainly not every morning, night and in between. I like independence in a relationship.”

 

He smiled. “I see. You don’t like to be chained.”

 

“Not figuratively.”

 

“I see,” Sebastian repeated with a smirk, and Grell shook herself. Shouldn't be making little flirtatious jokes like that. The need to know more about him, to ask him questions of her own, was strong. Strengthened even more by Ciel’s words from that morning. Maybe it was true; maybe this really was what she’d wanted all along. 

 

The words were out of her mouth before she could stop them. “And you?”

 

“Me?”

 

“You seem comfortable in the position of servant, even though the impression I got was more…”

 

Sebastian was suddenly crouched by her cage, smiling. “Dominant?”

 

“Y - yes,” she stuttered, startled again by his demonic speed. 

 

“I’ll admit I do prefer to be one doing the chaining, but I’m no stranger to kneeling,” Sebastian said, cocking his head and showing his teeth.

 

Grell made to move forward a little to continue talking, but whimpered, having jarred her arm. Head snapping down immediately, Sebastian finally noticed her arm. 

 

“How did that happen? Grell?”

 

She shrugged, swallowing another pained noise at the movement. Hours of alone time before he’d come back and she was still lost for how to proceed. Tell him? What if he got angry at Ciel, who then decided to punish her? What if he didn’t care?

 

“I didn’t take you into my care lightly; I intend to ensure your safety as perfectly as I can. Grell. At least let me wrap it properly for you.”

 

He opened the cage and reached out. Hesitantly taking his hand, she let him carry her to the bed.

 

“It’s a fractured arm and a few broken fingers, not an amputation,” she joked, uneasy at being treated so...tenderly. 

 

Sebastian smiled, medical kit already on hand. “I wasn't sure how extensive it was. I think I know how this happened and why.”

 

Grell winced as he wrapped each partially healed finger. “Go on then, enlighten me.”

 

“My Master mentioned he’d visited you today. He wasn’t too happy with me either, and I fear his mental state is deteriorating, although I’m not sure why. Did he hurt you?”

 

Her eyes pricked with tears and her throat closed up. She nodded. “Stupid brat,” she snapped, trying to stay composed, but her voice was already thick. 

 

Sebastian sat beside her on the bed, still examining her arm. “I’m assuming words were exchanged, too?”

 

Anger blossomed and she felt better already. Anger she could work with. 

 

“He goaded me into reaching through the bars and attacked me, and then had the nerve to make me apologise for calling him a monster!”

 

“Since when can anyone make you do anything,” Sebastian asked, probably trying to cheer her. But she only darkened.

 

“He had threats.”

 

A moment was all it took for Sebastian to make the connection. “Ah. If you’d asked me just weeks ago, I’d say Ciel Phantomhive would never make such base threats, but his current disposition is...unsteady. The events of today have convinced me; there’s more to this than I can see.”

 

“Events of today? As in, more than just what’s happened to me?” Grell asked, noticing Sebastian deep in thought.

 

“It’s inconsequential. You’ve set this incorrectly,” he said, eyes narrowed over her arm. “Unless you want it to be unusable, I need to fix it and that’s going to hurt.”

 

“Wonderful. Go ahead,” she said, through gritted teeth. 

 

With one hand pressing down on her chest to keep her still, he went about fixing the mess she’d made of her arm. She screamed, muffling herself by grabbing his other arm and pressing her face into it. He didn’t falter, even when she bit him to quiet herself. When she opened tearful eyes, he’d already wrapped it and lifted her head gently to wrap a sling around her neck.

 

“There,” he murmured, his hand tangling in her hair a little on its way out. “With your abilities, it should heal fairly quickly and I wouldn’t worry about scars either. Can I have my arm back, Grell?” he asked, amused.

 

She sniffled, letting him go. “A day or so should do it. The fingers are all but healed already. And the bruises were gone hours ago.”

 

Sebastian held her arm, tracing a finger along the newly aligned bone. “Blood?”

 

“A bit. It’s on the sheets now. Sorry about that.”

 

“I’m...glad I didn’t have to see you like that.”

 

Grell let him keep holding her, still a little faint from the pain. “You’re just excited to clean blood out of pure white sheets.”

 

He smiled and cocked his head. “Ecstatic. It’s going to take hours. Multiple soaks,” he added, and Grell chuckled. 

 

“Seeing you this excited about sheets, I can only imagine you cleaning my house.”

 

Sebastian gave her a stern look. “If you’re going to keep teasing me like this, eventually I’m just going to take a cloth to that house.”

 

Grell’s lids were heavy, her words faint. “Alright. One day. Maybe. Do you even get time off from the brat?”

 

He stiffened a little. “Perhaps.”

 

“Something happened.”

 

“Hm?”

 

Grell sat up a little, rubbing her forehead. “Today. Something’s up with you, I can sense it. What happened?”

 

“Nothing to be concerned about. Inconsequential, like I said. Get some rest. I have work to continue.”

 

“Mm-hm. God, these sheets. I could marry them,” Grell murmured, curling the fingers on her good hand into the sheets. 

 

She heard Sebastian snort, a little distantly. He must have gone back to the laundry. How much mucky clothes could one brat generate? Then again there were the other servants, and Sebastian’s clothes too. Plus like...tablecloths and stuff. Grell wondered if Sebastian took care of it all, or if he only took care of Ciel’s. That loud, clumsy maid might have to take care of the servants’ clothes. Then again, she was surprised any of them were still employed with how useless they were. Then again, the food they made was always good. Then again, Sebastian probably made those. Then again....

 

\---

 

As a child, Grell hated waking up. Sun in your eyes, leaving your warm bed, having to have a wash. Mother had magic senses. Or she seemed to, anyway. She could tell you were awake within seconds, even from downstairs. Grell quickly learned how to wake up without opening her eyes, moving around, or even altering her breathing pattern. Being the last to wake was a glorious rite. All the chores had been done and you got everyone’s leftovers. First one down usually got a bowl of plain porridge to make sure there was enough for everyone else. Plus after cooking for the kids, Mother would make the good stuff for Father. Eggs and bacon and beans. The good years. 

 

God, these sheets. Grell’s sheets at home were nowhere near this soft. It’d probably make Sebastian pale to know how long she’d been using them without cleaning them.

 

Her scalp prickled as a hand ran through her hair. 

 

_ What? _

 

Grell’s memory caught up with her and she realised she’d woken up on Sebastian’s chest again. At least she was taller now, so it was just her head resting on him. She didn’t remember falling asleep outside of her cage, but yesterday seemed so distant to her after being asleep. That soft touch slid through her hair again. Bassy. She wanted to sit up and demand what he thought he was doing, lying down with her and playing with her hair, how inappropriate. 

 

But god damn she needed this. Touch starved. That’s what Ronald had warned her would happen if she didn’t interact with people enough. She’d thought it utter nonsense, but had to admit that this short stay was the most she’d been touched in a long while. Electric sparked at the root of every one of her hairs and she couldn’t hide the fact that she was awake, her limbs twitching slightly at the touch.

 

“Good morning.”

 

She made a show of yawning against him and acting like she’d just woken up. “Hm? Yes. Morning.”

 

“You fell asleep while complaining about the servants. I was loathe to move you. Given your injured state.”

 

Grell was briefly, inwardly confused -  _ Wasn’t that complaining in my head? _

 

“Given my injured state,” Grell repeated, sitting up slightly. “Right. Of course. What if I’d woken before you and escaped?”

 

Sebastian shrugged. “The room is secure enough. Besides, I didn’t sleep.”

 

“At all? Why not? Don’t tell me you lay awake all night gazing longingly at my sleeping form, sunshine, because I don’t need another stalker!”

 

“Another?”

 

“Inconsequential,” Grell said, tartly, parroting his own words back to him. “Anyway. Get your arm off my back and your hand out of my hair, you bloody perv.”

 

“For the record, you were the one who rolled over to my side in your sleep. I simply made the best of the situation.”

 

Grell sat up, rubbing her eyes. “Don’t you have some chores to be doing?”

 

“Not for another hour or so. You’re up early. Feel free to go back to sleep, Grell.”

 

She let herself fall back against the pillow. “Can’t. Once I’m up, I’m up. Always been that way.”

 

Peripherally, she saw Sebastian roll onto his side and watch her. This was strange. Laying in bed together like a married couple. Highly inappropriate. It had been drilled into her sisters growing up, a man ought not to sleep next to a woman if they weren’t married. Of course, she’d never been given that speech, only her sisters. But she listened anyway. Mother raging at the eldest about how she’d had her suitor stay over and gotten into bed with him briefly while they ate breakfast together. Scandalous. 

 

If she wanted to, it would take next to no effort to reach out and hold his hand. It was just inches away. So was his mouth. In the time since her first night she’d been wearing him down, it was true. But he’d also been wearing her down. More and more she found herself letting go of principals that had been tight just days ago. 

 

“How’s your arm?” Sebastian asked, and Grell lifted it for inspection. “All but healed. Good.”

 

“No thanks to the brat. By the way,” she began, already regretting what she was about to say. “Ciel said something. And I can’t seem to get it out of my head.”

 

“He isn’t well, I’m sure he didn’t mean -”

 

“No, not that. He accused me of being...ungrateful, essentially. To your advances. Pointed out that, had you propositioned me this way just days before, I’d have been over the moon. And I would have. I do wonder what would have happened if I - I mean - I shouldn’t have been angry, should I? I should have accepted that you finally liked me. I’m sorry.”

 

Emotions aren’t audible. Humans would probably treat each other very differently if they were. But if Grell could have heard Sebastian’s anger building she would have known to be very afraid. Not for herself of course. 

 

“No. No, you have nothing to apologise for. I’m the one who’s been behaving like a monster. I’m sorry,” he added, reaching out to stroke her hair.

 

Grell shoved his hand away. “I’m tired of games, just-”

 

She threw aside the sheets and straddled him, her hands instinctively linking up behind his head as she kissed him. His mouth was quick to respond, and the tension between them quickly melted into something warm and irresistible. A foot in a hot bath. A sprinkle of sugar on the tongue. One long, desperate kiss. 

 

“Stop,” he breathed, turning his head away. “This isn’t right.”

 

“Of course it is, what are you talking about?” she growled, taking the opportunity to kiss along his jaw, down to his neck.

 

Sebastian remained still, though she could feel him shaking. “I can’t do this while I’m holding you captive, it’s just...wrong.”

 

She sat back on her haunches and blew stray hairs out of her face. “What? Wasn’t this your plan all along? You wanted to seduce me, consider me seduced.”

 

“Ciel got into your head, and now you think you owe me this. You don’t. Please, Grell. You would regret this.”

 

Grell slid off of him, back onto the pillow. “Well now I’m at a complete loss. You don’t want me, you want me, you don’t want me. Make up your bloody mind, demon.”

 

Sebastian sighed. “I have something to prove. And I can’t be with you until I succeed.”

 

“What? What on Earth have you got to prove?”

 

His hands cupped her face gently. 

 

“Love. I want to show you that this isn’t just some fancy I’ve taken. I do not covet you lightly. I want every inch of your being. Every word from your lips. Every moment of your time. And I don’t want to take them, I want you to give them to me. Unfortunately demons are not strictly capable of love, not really. I can seduce, trick and manipulate my way into the heart of just about anyone but I can’t love. Not the way I want to. I may be fallen, but by God, if it takes me a century...I will rise. I will love you, Grell Sutcliffe.”


	10. Chapter 10

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> short one this week! just a tease I guess :3
> 
> The new season of Happy! just came out recently in the UK and there is like zero content on it so I'm kinda working on a Smoothie/Sax piece right now inspired by some incredible youtube edits, so if I don't upload on time next week, that's why!

Exercise isn’t something you can slip on like a glove. It’s hard at first and you have to keep on at it all the while to get to the part where it’s easy. It takes effort, day after day, nonstop effort. Not just while your feet are hitting the ground, but when you get home. Effort to not squander your work by eating something decadent. Effort to not mess up your sleep routine so you have enough energy for the next day. Exercise is hard because you’re not just doing it while you’re doing it, it’s a lifestyle. This is why most people don’t exercise. 

 

I would say the solution to this is not just to find something to motivate you, but something that makes you genuinely enjoy exercise. Picking an activity you find fun, like swimming instead of plain old running. Exercising in a group so you can support each other via morale. Rewarding yourself with a long hot bath afterward. Stuff like this is grease on the wheels of exercise. For some people, none of this is necessary. They just wake up every day and get what needs to be done, done. Because they already have all the motivation they need, all the incentive to do what they set out to do. It’s not in a human’s nature to succeed. We’re meant to struggle, learn, overcome. Adapt. If everything were so simple, life would be near meaningless. Nothing would be earned, nothing would be won. Things just don’t happen...like that. 

 

Lucky then, that Grell and Sebastian were not humans. 

 

“We’ll need to keep up the illusion that you’re my prisoner, otherwise Ciel may guess what I’m trying to do.”

 

“Of course. I’m no stranger to roleplay.”

 

Lucky then, that Grell and Sebastian had a most powerful incentive.

 

“But we slept together before!”

 

“That was different, we have something to hide now.”

 

Lucky then, that Grell and Sebastian weren’t trying to exercise.

"Grell...have you noticed...?"

 

"Yes, of course. I was afraid of mentioning it. What do you think it means? Am I...Is it ever going to stop?"

 


	11. Chapter 11

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> sorry for the wait! <3

“I’m sure it’s nothing,” mused the Doctor. “Have you been getting enough sunlight? Water intake? Good, healthy foods?”

 

“Yes, I’ve been meeting the basic requirements for human existence. There’s nothing bloody wrong with me,” Ciel growled, pushing the magnifying device away from his face. 

 

Sebastian rested a hand on his shoulder. “If you should like, you can wait in the carriage.”

 

The Doctor looked up from his notes. “You don’t want to hear my...diagnosis,” he trailed off, seeing the door already closing behind Ciel.

 

“There are more symptoms than my Master was willing to reveal. As you can see, increased irritability is one of them, but there’s a long list of troubling behaviours. Almost anything can set him off, and it can be difficult to calm him down again. Decreased appetite, especially for richer meals. Insomnia and disturbed sleep patterns. Outbreaks of violence. I...also suspect he may be resorting to self-harm as an outlet for these violent tendencies. Sexual deviance. He grows more paranoid and distrustful every day and I fear his ever rising aggression towards others and himself.”

 

The Doctor raised a brow. “Sexual deviance? There’s just not much to be done I’m afraid. Tell me, is he a good, Christian boy? How often does he pray? Perhaps visiting the church more often may purge the devil from his mind and - where are you going?”

 

Sebastian stared at him. “Prayer? That’s your solution? Have you no practical treatments for this kind of...mental instability?”

 

“Of course,” the Doctor huffed, dabbing at his forehead nervously. “There are - well - there are herbs you could grind and spread about his pillows. Ch - charms - for outside his bedroom window. I’ve heard promising things about a drilling procedure from China -”

 

“Good day, Doctor.”

 

He hadn’t even left the building before he felt a particular prickle across his scalp that told him Ciel was in danger. By his side in seconds, Sebastian looked for the danger. 

 

“- silly herbal remedies! I’m fine! Urchin,” Ciel was hissing, at a boy a few years younger than him, clearly homeless and peddling mashed up plants.

 

The boy shrank back. “S - sorry, Gov. You just looked a bit pale is all.”

 

Sebastian laid a hand on Ciel’s shoulder, frowning when he shrugged him off. He quickly spotted the danger. The urchin’s older sister was stood a few feet away, glaring daggers, seconds away from intervening. 

 

“My Lord, our carriage.”

 

He shot the boy a meaningful look, sending him scurrying back to his sister. Ciel whirled on him. 

 

“I was handling that!”

 

“Yes, Sir. Only, your dinner is surely growing cold. That hack Doctor wasted more time than I thought he would.”

 

Ciel swung onto the carriage and slumped in his seat. “I suppose gossiping about me while I was gone was also fruitless?”

 

Sebastian smiled. “Human medicines are frightfully useless. I’m tempted to ruin him and have his medical practice suspended, but I rather think he’d be replaced with someone equally idiotic.”

 

“There’s nothing wrong with me,” Ciel grumbled, with the tired tone of someone fed up of repeating themself. 

 

“I have no wish to see you ill. But you know your health is my responsibility, it’s tied right into the seal on my hand. I can feel it.”

 

Ciel shrugged. “Perhaps. I - I know I’m not easy. I -”

 

He cut himself off, frustrated.  Tipped his hat down over his eyes and folded his arms. Sebastian let him pretend to be asleep.

 

\---

 

Sebastian had done his absolute best not to laugh at Grell. Really, he did. He kept his eyes focused on the Phantomhive family’s brass ornament collection he’d been polishing. Tried to maintain eye contact when he did look up from the work. Stitched his face into a neutral expression as best he could. Try as he might, once he didn’t have polishing to distract him, his mouth twitched into a wry smile. Even though he was now close behind her, she could sense his mirth. 

 

“I can hear you smiling. Bastard,” Grell muttered. “How many?”

 

“...12.”

 

“That’s far too fast isn’t it?”

 

“Yes. Do try not to worry. I’m looking into it.”

 

Grell snorted. “What does that mean? Don’t tell me, I’m sure I don’t want to know.”

 

“Sebastian, where are my good...stockings,” Ciel trailed off, frozen in the doorway. “What...what the bloody hell is going on?”

 

Grell was tempted to be snappy. Not only did she have something to hide, but Ciel’s last visit seemed to have made more of an impact than she’d thought. 

 

So Sebastian broke the silence first. “They’re in the pile on the dresser. I hadn’t put them away yet. As for what’s going on...we’re trying to figure that out right now.”

 

“Is it going to stop?” Ciel asked, leaning in as if observing a zoo creature.

 

Sebastian stepped down from the bed. “Perhaps. I’m looking into it,” he repeated.

 

Ciel pulled a face. “Just get rid of it and save the trouble.”

 

Grell’s mouth unlocked. “I may be eight feet tall but I’m not an old armoire you can just leave on the street. Don’t talk about me like I’m not here.”

 

Eight feet tall. Grell’s height had steadily increased since her first night, culminating in her ordinary height within just days. She’d thought nothing of it when her height returned to normal. And then one night shortly after she and Sebastian had had their big ‘talk’...

 

_ “We’ve already discussed this at length. You sleep on the bed, I sleep on the chaise,” Sebastian insisted.  _

 

_ Grell had grabbed his shirt and pulled him close, with the intention of yelling something insulting and vaguely sexual right in his face. And then they’d both realised it at the same time. She had at least 2 inches on him. _

 

Ciel scoffed. “If this is how fast you’re growing, you’ll have to leave sooner or later. I have no desire to see a giant freak burst through my ceilings and ruin my home. Sebastian, this is an order. Ensure the growth of this idiot does not ruin my house. Understood?”

 

“Yes, Sir. 

 

Grell felt Sebastian’s fingernails dig into the back of her thigh, out of Ciel’s line of sight. It was hard to suppress the grin she felt rising on her face but she took the hint; shut up. 

 

“I’m tired. Don’t bother with dinner I’m just…” Ciel trailed off, looking blank for a moment. “I’m going to bed.”

 

Sebastian made to follow him, but Ciel waved him off. “I can do it all myself, you’re - dismissed, or whatever.”

 

He shut the door behind him.

 

“Now he knows,” Sebastian stated.

 

Grell grinned down at him. “Indeed, and now you may remove your claws from my thigh. Damn near gave it away.”

 

Sebastian relaxed his hand, sliding both up over hips to sit at her waist. “I have to say - I’ve changed my mind.”

 

“About what?” she asked, unsure of what to do with her own hands. “Sleeping arrangements?”

 

He chuckled. “No, no, you’re still in the bed, on your own. I meant what I said previously. About liking you bitesize. But I’m starting to favour a giantess Grell.”

 

Grell flushed, scrambling for a response. “Yes, well. You’re the bitesized one now, Bassy. I can see the appeal.”

 

He was still staring at her with an unsettlingly intense smile so she reached out on a whim and patted his head. He looked absolutely thunderous. 

 

“What on earth are you doing?”

 

She grinned, ruffling his hair. “You’re simply adorable, Bassy. What, you don’t like it?”

 

“...No.”

 

“Then can I keep doing it?”

 

“I have preparations to attend to…” he murmured, trailing off when her long nails lingered behind his ear. “I suppose I could wake early and finish them then…”

 

He let her keep petting him, and they slowly relaxed into a strange sort of dance stance. His head leant against her front, arms wrapped around her waist, one of her hands on his own back and the other working magic in his hair. Her cheeks were warm, probably from the glow of her beaming smile. She tried to compare it to other times she’d been intimate in any way with another person and couldn’t quite remember anything quite like it. Most people generally found her offputting, too loud and more than a little scary. No one got this close unless to be violent or sexual towards her. 

 

Sebastian sighed into her shirt, or rather, he sighed into the giant maternity gown she was wearing as one, the only thing they’d found could really fit her. She frowned. 

 

“Bassy,” she whispered, shaking him gently. “Are you asleep?”

 

No answer. It wasn’t altogether late, but she hooked an arm under his legs and set about laying him on the bed. She made quick work of his jacket, waistcoat and tie.  _ No chaise for you _ , she thought cheekily. He’d probably be a little angry and snippy about traditions and the like, but she’d be good. She’d stick to her side of the bed, no spooning, no touching, 100% respect of the boundaries he’d set. 

 

At least, that was the plan. 

 

The plan quickly fell apart like a certain antique chair when she walked round to and tried to climb into her side of the bed and the mattress promptly dipped under her weight, sending Sebastian rolling right beside her. She considered getting up and trying again, or following his orders and putting him on the chaise but he rolled all the way onto her and she didn’t think he’d stay asleep much longer if she tried to move him again. 

 

“Silly bloody demon,” she murmured, resisting the urge to wrap an arm around him. “Good night, Bassy.”

**Author's Note:**

> I know I self-deprecate, but it'd be nice to know if my work is trash or not so feel free to leave a comment or kudos if ya want <3
> 
> also I made a lil playlist to listen to whilst writing, just a few songs that make me think of Grell and Sebastian, if anybody's interested :3 
> 
> https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PL-DySDRWTVSe4sV1AxKLQyK_JORjVVkYI
> 
>  
> 
> If you'd like to reach out to me, send an email to bendyoubreakyou@gmail.com


End file.
